Horsemen: Track improving; they're preparing to race

Chuck Stinnett

3:39 PM, Jun 26, 2013

4:16 PM, Jun 26, 2013

Though unhappy with Ellis Park management over the introduction of rock-littered sand to the racetrack last fall, local horsemen on Wednesday indicated their intention to proceed with racing when the 2013 live meet begins on July 4.

"I've been at this track for 30-odd years, and this is nothing new," owner-trainer Bill Short of Evansville declared at a meeting of horsemen at the track kitchen Wednesday morning.

"I went out" on Wednesday morning to exercise horses, Short said. "There were some rocks. But it's a lot better" than it was when the track opened for training May 20.

"It's 100-percent better that it was," another horsemen declared.

"(On Wednesday) morning, we talked with several horsemen and a lot of exercise riders ... From those conversations, it sounds like the track is much better than it's been," Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association Executive Director Marty Maline, who conducted the meeting, said.

"There are rocks out there," Maline said. "But it's not as bad as it was."

Ellis Park had a contractor use a mobile rock-screening machine on Saturday and Sunday to remove rock from the racetrack. Those operations ceased after a storm moved in Monday morning, dumping three to five inches of rain in the Evansville area.

Some horsemen were alarmed Tuesday morning to see that some rocks had worked their way to the surface during the heavy rain. They're concerned that a rock kicked up by a horse's hoof could strike another horse or a jockey in the face.

Local horse owners and jockeys said they are particularly upset that sandy soil dug up from the nearby Horseshoe Bend river bottoms wasn't run through a sifting machine to filter out rock and other debris before it was placed on the dirt track last November.

"If they just sifted the damn sand ... we wouldn't be there," one horseman declared.

"We're past that," Bork replied.

But he and several horsemen expressed confidence in longtime track superintendent Glenn Thompson's ability to tend to the racing surface.

"Glenn is the best trackman in North America. No doubt about it," Bork told a reporter after the meeting.

"I think we're going to be all right," the racing secretary told horsemen. "If Glenn tells me he's going to have this track all right, it will be all right."

While local horsemen seem resolved to race, a key concern is whether owners and trainers based at other tracks have confidence to send horses to Ellis this summer. The track will accept entries this Saturday for next Thursday's opening day.

"I know it will be a tough day for entries the first day," Maline told horsemen at Wednesday's meeting.

"I know a lot of horsemen are calling you, asking your opinion," he said. "I can tell you, (horsemen) at Churchill (Downs) and Turfway Park, they are as concerned as you."

"Obviously it's a problem," Bork said. "I get calls from horsemen ... You know how it is. Once there's a little bit of fire, it blows up.

"We've got to let people know it's starting to get better," he said.

"There is every intention of running a race meet if the entries show up," Maline said. "You need to reach out to your fellow horsemen."

"For people calling you, do you feel confident in telling them it's improved?" he asked.

One horsemen asked Bork whether, if few horses are shipped in, the track would run fields with as few as four horses.

"We're going to have a meet," the racing secretary replied.

"I know you'd like to see small fields," Maline told the local horsemen. "But for the sake of racing, we need full fields."

In the meantime, the HBPA intends to press Ellis Park to ensure the integrity of the racetrack.

"I told them they need to re-sift the racetrack," Maline said. "They've got to do something to regain the confidence of horsemen."

"They're not prepared to resift it at this point," he said. "Just my opinion: Whether they resift or not depends on how the entries go."

Maline said he is also pushing Ellis to repair its rain float, which is a steel plate pulled behind a tractor to seal a rain-soaked racetrack and bring moisture to the surface to promote drying, and to fix its owns rock-screening equipment, which he said "is in poor repair."

While progress has been made, Maline said, "We don't want to them to drop their guard" on making further progress.